What is one to do when a father arranges a marriage for them, one they find abhorrent, and will not listen to their opinions or desires?
Felicity is the daughter of Henry and Beth Bennet, and for his own reasons, her father decides to arrange a marriage for his daughter, who is seventeen, to the son of Augustus Collins, Clem. His reasoning is that he is not confident his son Thomas will ever marry, and if he does, he doubts the son's ability to produce a son. Given the entail to heirs male on Longbourn and that if there is no son of Bennet blood, the Collins line will inherit, Henry sees this as the only way to secure the future of Longbourn after he is called home to God. As a woman, the only recourse Felicity has is to refuse to say her vows, which her father has threatened will leave her banished from Longbourn with her dowry stripped from her.
At the same time, Lord Dryden Fitzwilliam, the Earl of Matlock, is determined that his second son, Reginald, will marry Lady Elaine Winston, the virago daughter of the Duke of Hertfordshire, as he craves an alliance with the powerful and extremely wealthy Duke. Her father had settled for a second son because none other would have her. Matlock wants another connection, as he had made when he married his older son, Jefferson, Viscount Hilldale, to the daughter of an earl he needed to be associated with.
Unlike Felicity Bennet, as a male, Reggie Fitzwilliam (who hates the hypocrisy of the Ton), being that he is well past his majority, cannot be forced to marry against his will as the settlement requires his own signature. He is training to be a barrister with the most prestigious firm in London when he is sent to Meryton to work with a solicitor who needs the services of a barrister. The solicitor is one Elias Gardiner.
The two whose fathers are attempting to bend them to their will, as far as matrimony goes, meet and end up eloping.
This tale tells of their early years together and their respective fathers' and families' reactions to their marriage. At some point, we arrive in 1811 with the leasing of Netherfield Park by Charles Bingley. A Darcy similar to canon is with his friend, and he behaves as we expect when he first meets the Bennets. He has, of course, no idea that his Aunt Felicity is also aunt to the Bennet sisters.
At the same time, the said sisters are not aware that they have another aunt, as, for his own reasons, their father has never mentioned her existence.
Not long after the infamous assembly, William Darcy writes a letter to his cousin and closest friend in the world, Richard Fitzwilliam, in which he shares his thoughts and reactions, including the slight at the assembly, with his slightly older cousin. Amused at his cousin's pride, Richard allows his mother to read the letter.
Felicity Fitzwilliam is not amused, and she decides it is time she met her nieces.